100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 819 - Rust

The two Split Bodies continued across the ancient world in separate directions.

Lucien controlled both through Parallel Thoughts.

The Spatial Compass remained with his real body, but that did not matter. Every change in the needle reached all three minds at once.

Whenever one trace shifted, Lucien adjusted the corresponding Split Body.

One moved across a broad mountain range.

The other crossed an enormous forest untouched by any road or settlement.

Neither had caught sight of its target yet.

Lucien’s real body was closer.

The trace ahead had stopped changing direction several minutes ago.

That alone made him cautious.

The Incarnation had been moving quickly before.

Now it seemed to be waiting.

Lucien slowed.

The landscape had changed again.

Grass disappeared beneath exposed stone.

Dark cliffs rose from the ground in long broken ridges, and veins of metal ran visibly through sections of the surrounding rock.

There was enough metal buried beneath this region that even ordinary miners from his era would have considered the place absurdly valuable.

Lucien’s eyes narrowed.

The Compass needle pointed directly ahead.

Then he saw the silhouette.

Someone floated above a shallow valley between two mineral-rich ridges.

Lucien stopped well outside ordinary striking distance.

The figure turned.

Their eyes met.

The vessel the Incarnation wore was a Beastman.

Broad shoulders. Dark gray fur. A heavy frame built for physical combat. Two short horns curved backward from his head, and several old scars crossed his exposed arms.

The body itself did not concern Lucien.

The thing inside it did.

Primordial authority pressed faintly against the surroundings.

Lucien recognized the Law almost immediately.

Rust.

He could feel it in the metal beneath the earth.

The Beastman’s lips curved upward.

"We’ve been expecting you."

Lucien said nothing.

His attention spread across the valley.

The Incarnation had stopped here deliberately.

This terrain suited him.

That meant the meeting was not accidental.

"Unfortunately for you," the Incarnation continued, "the fact that you followed me means your mission has already failed."

Lucien’s expression did not change.

That was exactly the sort of sentence meant to waste someone’s thoughts.

Either it was true, or the Incarnation wanted him to believe it.

Neither possibility changed what Lucien needed to do.

The Beastman chuckled.

"You really are troublesome."

Then the world changed.

Rust spread.

•••

The Incarnation’s Domain expanded.

Metal began dying.

Orange-brown stains appeared across exposed ore.

The stains expanded with impossible speed.

Iron veins cracked inside the cliffs.

Copper dulled.

Metallic deposits beneath the ground lost cohesion as centuries of oxidation seemed to pass through them in moments.

The effect was not limited to visible metal.

Lucien felt the Law reaching toward anything within the Domain that possessed the conditions necessary to rust.

Minerals reacted.

Trace metals hidden inside stone responded.

Even tiny metallic particles suspended in dust began changing.

The air gained the dry, bitter smell of oxidized iron.

The Domain rushed toward Lucien.

He lifted his gaze.

"Break."

The Edict fell.

Living Creation responded.

The expanding Domain shattered.

The rust-colored pressure surrounding the valley broke apart as though an invisible shell had cracked from every direction at once.

The spreading oxidation stopped.

For a moment, silence returned.

The Beastman’s smile disappeared.

He stared at Lucien.

Then he rubbed the side of his head.

"What a pain."

Lucien smiled slightly.

That had told him something useful.

Under normal circumstances, breaking the Domain of a Primordial Incarnation with a single Edict should not have been that easy.

The Incarnation’s authority was weakened.

Lucien could feel it now that they had directly clashed.

The unfamiliar age was affecting him.

His vessel carried Primordial authority, but the surrounding world did not recognize the structures through which that authority normally expressed itself.

There was no familiar energy system supporting it.

The Law still worked.

Its expression was less efficient.

Lucien’s smile widened slightly.

His own authority suffered no such problem.

His Laws did not rely entirely on the ancient world around him.

An entire universe existed inside him.

When Lucien called upon Living Creation, there was already a world that recognized him.

The Beastman noticed the change in his expression.

His own face became serious.

That’s wen the metal beneath the valley moved.

The ground erupted.

Thousands of fragments of ore tore free from the surrounding cliffs.

Some were no larger than grains of sand.

Others were larger than houses.

They rose into the air and immediately began rusting.

Lucien understood the first layer of the attack.

Rust weakened metal.

The Incarnation was deliberately degrading the ore until it became brittle.

Then he compressed it.

The fragments shattered.

A storm of rusted metal filled the valley.

Lucien moved.

The cloud followed.

That was when he understood the second layer.

The Incarnation was not merely throwing debris.

Every particle carried Rust authority.

Anything metallic they touched would begin degrading.

Armor. Weapons. Artifacts. Even tiny amounts of metal incorporated into more complicated materials could become points of infection.

Lucien’s Divine Energy covered his body.

The rust storm struck.

Most of it never reached him.

Living Creation unfolded around Lucien and altered the structure of the approaching particles.

Oxidized iron softened.

Fragments collapsed into useless powder.

Some were reconstructed into chemically stable forms before Rust could continue acting through them.

The Incarnation’s eyes narrowed.

Lucien reached into his Inventory.

Morphis appeared.

The weapon trembled once.

Its Dragon Soul Core recognized Lucien immediately.

His intention reached it before his hand fully closed.

Morphis expanded.

Metal folded over itself.

The weapon lengthened into a massive two-handed sword.

Its broad blade reflected the rust-colored sky.

Lucien smiled.

"Let’s make this quick."

The Beastman disappeared.

Lucien moved at the same moment.

Their attacks met in the center of the valley.

And the impact tore the ground apart.

...

The Incarnation fought barehanded, or at least that was how it appeared at first.

Whenever Lucien closed the distance, rust-covered metal tore itself from the earth and wrapped around the Beastman’s forearms.

The layers hardened just long enough to absorb each collision before the Incarnation deliberately allowed them to decay. The weakened metal cracked and fell away, only for fresh ore to rise and replace it before Lucien’s next attack arrived.

Lucien swung Morphis across his body with enough force to split the Beastman in two.

The Incarnation raised an arm to block.

Metal shattered around his forearm, but Morphis continued through the defense. The Beastman twisted at the last instant, allowing the blade to pass within centimeters of his throat.

Lucien stepped after him without giving him room to recover.

Morphis changed in his hands. The broad two-handed sword narrowed along its edge while much of its unnecessary weight disappeared, allowing Lucien to bring it around far faster than before. The Dragon Soul Core responded so naturally to his intention that the transformation felt almost instantaneous.

The Incarnation raised both hands.

A wall of metal erupted between them and began rusting before it had even finished forming.

Lucien nearly mistook it for a failed defense.

Then the Beastman smiled.

The wall collapsed deliberately.

Its brittle surface exploded outward into countless jagged fragments at point-blank range, each carrying traces of Rust authority.

Lucien’s eyes sharpened as Space bent around him.

The fragments swept past empty air.

He appeared above the Incarnation with Morphis already descending.

The Beastman crossed his arms.

"Oxidation Grave."

The mineral basin answered.

Rust raced through every exposed metal vein buried throughout the surrounding cliffs. Ore that had remained stable beneath the stone for countless years deteriorated almost simultaneously, weakening the structures around it until the entire valley began to collapse.

Lucien felt the ground disappear beneath him.

The stone itself had not rusted. The metallic deposits running through it had simply lost enough integrity that layers of mineral-rich rock could no longer support one another.

Cliffs folded inward.

Massive pieces of ore broke loose.

Dust swallowed the valley.

The Incarnation disappeared into the destruction.

Lucien immediately sensed him moving below.

He turned Morphis downward as Living Creation flowed across the blade. His Laws followed naturally, each one serving a specific purpose rather than simply being forced together.

Living Creation adjusted Morphis’s structure to withstand the strike.

Space shortened the remaining distance.

Reflection caught the force that would have returned against Lucien and redirected it forward.

Time altered the precise instant when the blade’s accumulated momentum reached its target.

Lucien struck.

The valley split beneath him.

The Beastman was driven downward through layer after layer of stone before finally crashing into the depths of the mineral basin.

Lucien followed immediately.

He had no intention of allowing the Incarnation to regain distance.

The Beastman burst upward before Lucien could reach him. Rust-covered metal extended over his fingers and sharpened into claws as he met Morphis head-on.

The collision produced a harsh scraping sound.

Orange discoloration immediately appeared across the blade.

Lucien glanced down and watched Rust spread several centimeters along Morphis’s surface.

Then the weapon changed.

Its material structure shifted beneath the corrosion, and the layer Rust had begun affecting was simply discarded as Morphis assumed another composition.

The spreading stain lost its foundation and broke away.

The Beastman stared at the clean blade.

Lucien grinned.

"You picked a bad weapon."

Morphis transformed again before the Incarnation could answer.

The two-handed sword separated along carefully divided sections, becoming a segmented blade without losing its overall reach. Lucien twisted his wrist, and the flexible sections curved around the Beastman’s guard.

The Incarnation managed to protect his neck, but one section carved across his shoulder.

Blood scattered through the air.

The Beastman retreated.

Lucien stayed with him.

Their battle soon escaped the ruined valley and spread across the surrounding region.

Wherever the Incarnation passed, metal deteriorated. Ore veins buried beneath cliffs collapsed as the deposits supporting them became brittle. Mineral-rich stone weakened from within, while rust-colored dust spread so widely through the atmosphere that distant ridges began to resemble ruins abandoned for thousands of years.

Lucien gradually understood that he had underestimated Rust by thinking of it as simple corrosion.

The Law did not need to destroy metal immediately. Its strength came from weakening structures until they failed at the worst possible moment.

The Incarnation understood that principle perfectly.

Fresh ore repeatedly tore itself from the earth and formed into weapons around him. He launched several spears toward Lucien, only to accelerate their corrosion halfway through their flight. The weakened outer layers shattered at carefully chosen moments, turning every projectile into a cloud of razor-like fragments.

Chains burst from beneath the ground and swept toward Lucien’s movement paths. Certain links rusted through while the chains were still moving, changing their trajectories unpredictably and sending broken sections whipping in from unexpected angles.

Large metal plates formed overhead next. Rust spread unevenly across them, weakening some portions while leaving others intact. The imbalance twisted the plates into serrated shapes before the Incarnation sent them crashing toward Lucien from above.

Lucien cut through the attacks without stopping.

Morphis changed continuously in his hands, becoming whatever shape best suited the next exchange. A long sword narrowed into a spear when Lucien needed reach, then thickened into a heavy blade when he wanted raw force. When the Incarnation tried to exploit the larger surfaces, Morphis shortened again before Rust could properly establish itself.

The Dragon Soul Core had evolved far beyond the weapon Lucien once needed to consciously command through every transformation.

Now Morphis responded like part of his own body.

His Laws flowed through it just as naturally.

Whenever Rust began establishing itself on the weapon, Living Creation altered the affected material before the corrosion could spread. When the Incarnation adjusted and tried attacking the new structure instead, Lucien simply changed it again.

He stopped giving Rust the same target long enough to exploit it.

The Beastman’s expression gradually hardened.

Lucien noticed.

Then he decided to increase the pressure.

Dragon Beast Mode activated.

His body expanded as scales spread across his skin and draconic power surged through his frame.

Morphis reacted with him.

Its Dragon Soul Core resonated with Lucien’s transformed body, and the weapon grew larger and heavier while its internal structure reinforced itself to withstand the force Lucien was about to unleash.

Lucien disappeared.

Their next collision shook the entire mountain range.

The Beastman was thrown backward before he could stabilize his defense.

Lucien caught him before he touched the ground.

Morphis descended again.

Rust surged desperately between them, gathering into several layers of metal meant to absorb the attack.

Lucien’s Laws shifted across the blade.

He had already learned enough from their previous exchanges to stop treating Rust as an unknown threat.

The Law required something that could remain within the process of deterioration long enough for corrosion to take hold. Stable material gave Rust something to attack, while exposed structural weaknesses allowed that deterioration to spread.

Lucien simply refused to remain stable.

Morphis changed during the swing itself.

Its structure at the beginning of the attack was different from the structure it possessed upon impact, and Living Creation continuously renewed the outermost layer before Rust could establish a lasting hold.

The Incarnation’s corrosion would begin.

Morphis would change.

The infected material would cease to exist in the same state Rust had targeted.

Then the process would start again.

The Beastman finally understood what Lucien was doing.

"You learn quickly."

Lucien brought Morphis around once more.

"Your Law had obvious symptoms."

The Incarnation blocked.

The force of the collision drove him through the cliff behind him and collapsed the entire section of mountain.

Lucien followed him into the falling stone.

By then, the direction of the battle had become obvious.

The Incarnation was losing.

Lucien had more energy to spend, more ways to adapt, and Morphis made one of Rust’s greatest advantages far less effective than it should have been.

The Beastman knew it too.

Yet even after blood began staining his body and the distance between them became increasingly difficult for him to maintain, the smile never completely disappeared from his face.

Lucien noticed.

His next attack slowed only slightly as another part of his mind began examining the fight from a different angle.

The Incarnation was certainly defending himself.

He was certainly attacking.

Yet he had never made a serious attempt to escape, even after realizing Lucien held the advantage.

More importantly, he had never fought with the urgency of someone who genuinely needed to win.

He only needed to remain alive.

Lucien’s expression gradually changed.

Parallel Thoughts shifted a portion of his attention toward the other two pursuits. His Split Bodies were still following the remaining Incarnations, and whenever the Spatial Compass changed direction, Lucien immediately passed the correction through their shared thoughts.

Both targets were still moving.

Neither had stopped.

The realization settled into place.

Lucien looked at the bloodied Beastman.

Rust smiled back at him.

"So that’s it."

The Incarnation said nothing.

He did not need to.

Lucien tightened his grip on Morphis as his expression turned cold.

This battle had never been meant to defeat him.

Rust was buying time.